EastWest wins central bank nod for P30B additional capital

The Gotianuns’ East West Banking Corporation is ready to go full throttle with its bold expansion plans after it secured regulatory approval for a bigger capitalization.

In a disclosure, the bank said the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) has approved their proposal to raise EastWest’s authorized capital to P50 billion from P20 billion on Feb. 1, 2018.

The approval comes months after the bank’s board of directors approved these changes to their articles of incorporation and by-laws in July 2017.

This means that the bank will be issuing 4.5 billion common shares and 500 million preferred shares with a par value of P10 each. The higher capital is meant to “provide flexibility to the Bank for future capital requirements,” EastWest said.

Expect fresh capital-raising initiatives from this bank in the coming months.